During the first year of this project, interview, participant observation and audiovisual data were collected on the cultural and behavioral aspects of the course and management of pregnancy, labor, birth, and the immediate postpartum period in three different cultural settings: lay mid-wife attended home birth of Maya Indian women in Yucatan, Mexico; nurse midwide-attended hospital birth in Sweden, and trained midwife-attended home and hospital birth in Holland. The second year is devoted to data analysis which will result in a) comparative ethnographies of birth in the settings indicated; b) analysis of the nature and function of talk during birth (from audiotapes and audiotracks of videotapes); and c) international analysis of the behaviors of birth participants (from videotapes). Throughout, the objective is to isolate structural components of birthing systems, to identify their crosscultural similarities and differences, and to assess their influence on pregnancy outcome. This analysis is expected to result in recommendations for directed change in U.S. birthing practices in the interest of improving American pregnancy outcome statistics.